Movie: TV sitcom's have been airing for decades and each of them have their own audience. Interestingly, for me at least, is that all too many of them follow a formula based on other sitcoms, typically addressing the lowest common denominator possible and usually directed at a younger market demographic. A show that breaks the mold, and is directed primarily at men, is The Red Green Show.

Taped in Canada, the show has been on the air since 1991, the same year another show, this one domestically produced, called Home Improvement. Both make fun of guys but seem to hold our ways as valid while doing it. The Red Green Show doesn't make an attempt to cater to a female audience as it's American counterpart does, and uses the worldly character of Red Green (Steve Smith) to show how life would be if men ruled the world.

Red spends most of his time trying to fix things, including cars, with Duct tape and whatever else is lying around, like a poor man's MacGuyver. His results are somewhat lesser than the famous fix-it man and the results of his various contraptions are typically enough to make me smile, if not laugh out loud. Much of the rest of the show focuses on some central theme, be it Red running for Mayor, protect his tiny community from yuppies, or compete with a rival lodge and each episode is a stand alone project. That there is a full body of wacky supporting characters, many reminding me of the rubes from Green Acres or Petticoat Junction, only added to the humor which ranged from the typical "men are dumb" style to the "I don't need help OR directions" attitude or even the "small town people are just as dumb as you think they are" style but with sly wit and a wink that tells us it's all in good fun. The show doesn't rely heavily on overt sexual humor either. Unlike some of the current crop of shows directed at men, such as The Man Show, which is a classic in it's own way, The Red Green Show relies on humor that women won't generally find offensive, and doesn't claim to have answers to whatever crisis pops up in the weekly half hour show.

This volume, Red Green Stuffed and Mounted 6, is a collection of eight episodes of the show, with most episodes similar in nature, and from a variety of seasons. I suppose purists will find the lack of true season sets to be a pain, and I'm not sure I'd disagree with them, but the ones presented here showed as much continuity as any day time soap opera. The formula here actually works to the extent that if you like one episode, you'll probably like the others just as much. I didn't tire after watching all 8 here, although if I bought the 6 dvd set, that might've changed. The formula was different from American TV shows but adhered to the tried and true fashion they are based on-similar but different (sorry for being obscure but if you watch an episode, you'll probably understand). I'd recommend you watch an episode on your local PBS station before getting this dvd, it's in it's 12th season, but if you like it as much as I did, you'll want to buy it. I'm rating this one as Recommended to those who enjoy comedy without all the modern day need for swearing and sex.

Picture: The picture is presented in it's original 1.33:1 ratio full frame format. It looked clear to me but certain episodes were obviously made on a lower budget than others and some of the segments that took place outside the studio were intentionally made to look cheap. There were some compression artifacts at times and a friends RCA player locked up a couple of times at the beginning but once the show started, it had no problems.

Sound: The sound was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo but I didn't notice a lot of separation between the channels. It was plain, like the other aspects of the show, but clear.

Extras: The only extras were 4 character biographies and a short introduction of each episode by Steve himself. Not much but considering there were 8 full episodes on the disc, I wouldn't complain too loudly

Final Thoughts: The show may well be a goof on men and their ways but it does so in such a way that we can all step back and laugh a bit at the characters, and ourselves, without feeling bad. It doesn't get preachy about saving the world, as some comedy shows get, and it really does have some sly humor aimed at the upper end of the intellect, no matter how disguised it may be in the cleverly conceived rubes. Check it out and you may become a fan.